A community mural signifies the unity of people made real by Chief Ahuchoga
By Ken Luchterhand
Little hands wave brushes back and forth as bright colors dance across the canvases. The busy hands, along with smiling faces, paints a story of how the newer generation invests in the hopes and dreams of the past.
The scene was made possible from the children of the Nekoosa Youth and Learning Center, who traveled to Reedsburg on Wednesday, August 17, and painted the imagery on plywood panel murals to be displayed on a former hardware store building in the city as a reminder of the legacy of Chief Ahuchoga.
The project is a combined effort of the Little Eagles Arts Foundation and Reedsburg Artslink. To help with the mural, Wesley May, nationally-recognized native artist, of Red Lake, Minn., is providing his skills and to provide guidance to the volunteer painters.
Also helping was Chris Sweet, a Ho-Chunk artist who was invited by Melanie Tallmadge Sainz, LEAF director. He mainly works on paintings of a smaller size, using acrylics, so the mural was a new experience for him, he said.
Children from the Tomah Youth and Learning Center came to do the same the following day, on Thursday, August 18. Community members are welcome to paint on the mural project as well.
“Chief Ahuchoga was a kind, gentle man who brought the people, both Ho-Chunk and the people of the community, together,” Tallmadge Sainz said. “When soldiers came to this area to remove the Ho-Chunk people from the land, the people of the community stood up to the soldiers out of respect for Chief Ahuchoga and the people. They stopped the soldiers from taking the Ho-Chunk people away.”
This Reedsburg incident may have helped put an end to the federal government’s inhumane policy of Native American relocation, she said.
Chief Ahuchoga, also known as “Blue Wing,” is buried near Tomah and has a Ho-Chunk community there that is named after him. In 1974, the cemetery was dedicated in his name.
“Ahichoga: Blue Wing’s Legacy” is a documentary produced by Lance Tallmadge, a direct descendant of Ahuchoga, in which he retells the story of forced removal of all Native Americans from southern Wisconsin in 1873. That documentary was shown August 16 at the Reedsburg Public Library.
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